Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Purim Mythconceptions

There is a general sense in the frum world that the way
things are done now is the way they've always been. Some take this to
ridiculous extremes, claiming that they share even their social norms and communal
idiosyncrasies with religious Jews down through the ages, but even those with a
more realistic view of how practices develop tend to assume that certain
things, like holiday customs, are more or less kept now as they have always
been. The truth is that customs evolve over time. New customs are invented and
replace old customs, customs are carried on with their original intent lost,
and things that started as something cute come to be taken seriously.

The purpose of this post is not to try to ruin Purim. Whatever the holiday's
origins or the origin of particular customs may be, the day itself is a lot of
fun. Debunking misconceptions doesn't take away from that. Things can be
enjoyable and meaningful even if they don't go back quite as far as we thought
they did or commemorate what we thought they commemorated. But I think it's
important to live in the real world, and part of that is understanding how
these things really got started.

The following is a list of the origins of some of Purim's
practices.

Hamantaschen

The popular myth

The triangular cookies are eaten on Purim in remembrance of
what Haman tried to do to us because Haman wore a triangular hat (or had
triangular pockets).

The probable true
origin

There has been a tradition to eat sweets made with poppy
seeds and honey on Purim at least as far back as Ibn Ezra (1089–1164),
who writes about it. In Yiddish poppy seeds are "man" and "tasch"
means "pocket." In Central Europe mantaschen
- poppy pockets - were a popular Purim treat, in keeping with the long
tradition of sweet poppy treats on Purim. At some point, either as a pun or
mistakenly, people started calling the
cookies "hamantaschen." The
true etymology of the name was forgotten by most people, and the myth developed
that the cookies symbolized Haman's triangular hat. Today, most depictions of
Haman show him in a triangular hat, based on nothing more than the similarity
between his name and that of a popular Purim treat.

Taanis Esther

The popular myth

We fast on the day before Purim in remembrance of the fast that
Esther asked the Jews in Shsushan to hold for three days before she went to
speak to Achashverosh on their behalf. Taanis Esther is part of the Purim
holiday, a day of introspection before the day of celebration.

The probable true
origin

The day before Purim used to be a different holiday, Yom
Nicanor. As detailed in Megillas Taanis (which discusses many no-longer extant
Jewish holidays), this holiday commemorated the victory of the Chashmonaim over
the Seleucid general Nicanor. Nicanor had been sent to Judea as governor by the
Seleucid king Demetrius only a generation after the events of Chanukah. He was
told by the king to reinstate the ousted kohen gadol Alcimus. When the Jews
refused, Nicanor declared war. He was eventually defeated on the thirteenth of
Adar. The Chashmonaim, who had removed Alcimus for being too Hellinized, then
did a very Hellinistic thing and declared the day a holiday for all time in
commemoration of their victory. As time went on the Chashmonaim became more and
more Hellenized. After they lost power the Rabbonim went out their way to erase
the effects the (in their view) tainted dynasty had on Judaism. As part of that
effort, they replaced Yom Nicanor with Taanis Esther. For generations, Jews had
two back-to-back holidays in Adar, Yom Nicanor and Purim. Taanis Esther is not
so much part of the Purim package as it is a political move meant to erase the
Hellenized influence of the Chashmonaim from Judaism.

Noise During
"Haman"

The popular myth

We make noise when Haman's name is read to drown it out, to
show our disapproval and to erase his name. This is despite the obligation to
hear every word of the megillah, which obligates the baal koreh to repeat the
word after everyone has calmed down, defeating the purpose of drowning out
Haman's name. It is also despite the fact that this custom, far from obliterating
Haman's name, causes people (especially kids) to pay special attention to his
name in order to make noise at the right moment, and that the effect is that it
seems we're cheering for the story's villain.

The probable true
origin

The custom of erasing Haman's name used to be taken more
literally. People would write Haman's name on the bottom of their shoes (which
some still do) or on rocks. When Haman's name was read, they would stomp their
feet or bang the rocks together, literally erasing his name. In time, the
practice of writing out his name in order to erase it faded away, but the noise
from foot-stomping and rock-banging remained. The current custom, then, is essentially
a mistake, continuing to reproduce a
side-effect of the original custom without any of its substance.

Costumes/Drinking/Vinahapachu

The popular myth

We wear costumes on Purim because Hashem's actions in the
Purim story were hidden. Just as He disguised Himself, so too we disguise ourselves. The
usual way things would be expected to work out, that the citizens of the powerful
Persian Empire would destroy the weak Jews when ordered to do so, was turned on
its head, and instead the Jews destroyed their enemies. So we turn things
upside down on Purim and be silly to commemorate the unexpected turn of events.
We drink on Purim in celebration of our survival, and have a mitzvah to get so
drunk that we don't know the difference between Mordechai hatzadik and Haman
harasha.

The probable true
origin

Purim falls out roughly the same time of year as Carnival, the
Feast of Fools, and other similar holidays. All of these holidays have as part
of their celebration masquerading, drinking, and a reversal of the usual order
of things. In ancient Rome and medieval Europe, it was common for the social
order in particular to be upended during the holiday, with a commoner being appointed
"lord" for the duration of the holiday and the aristocracy serving
him. These holiday customs can be traced back to older winter holidays such as
Saturnalia. It is likely that Purim either borrowed traditions from these
holidays or that both Purim and these holidays share traditions from an older
source.

The Purim Story

The popular myth

The megillah recounts a historical event in which the righteous
Mordechai and Esther thwarted the plot of the evil Haman and saved the Jews of
the Persian Empire from annihilation.

The probable true
origin

Although extensive records have survived from the Persian
Empire, there is no mention of anything resembling the Pruim story. "Mordechai"
is a Babylonian name which means, "servant of Marduk," (the chief god
of the Babylonian pantheon) and "Esther" is a variant spelling of
"Ishtar," a popular goddess in the Ancient Near East, also known as
Isis in Egypt, Asarte in Greek, and Asherah in Canaan. At best, these Jewish
heroes who, according to the commentaries, protested other Jews assimilating
into Persian society and attending the king's feast, were named the ancient
Persian equivalent of John and Christina. At worst, the Purim story is a
Judaicized version of a Babylonian folk tale about the gods.

Also of interest is that Marduk was a warrior god and the patron
god of soldiers. Soldiers were often referred to as the servants of Marduk,
which may be the ultimate source of the medrash that Mordechai had been a
soldier in the Persian army.

-Was there a reason poppy seeds were eaten? I think you may have cause and effect a bit backward: They were popular all year, but because they sounded like "Haman," people began eating them on Purim.

-No one really knows where Taanit Esther comes from. Megillat Taanit was abolished with the destruction of the Temple- it had nothing to do with anti-Hasmonean feeling, although other political considerations may have been involved- whereas Taanit Esther is only mentioned for the first time many hundreds of years later. I don't think they're related the way you say.

-The idea that the story comes from Babylonian myths (it helps that Marduk replaced a god whose name sounded like "Haman" and Ishtar replaced a goddess named something like "Vashti") was popular about sixty years ago, but modern Biblical scholars are more doubtful of that.

2. My understanding is that Yom Nicanor was still celebrated until well after the churban bayis sheni.

3. There's no way to know for sure where the story came from. Maybe it's a myth. Maybe it really happened. Maybe it's based on something less dramatic which really happened and the story grew over time and was conflated with a folk tale. What it isn't, though, is the story of of Jewish heroes untainted by outside influences that it's been made into.

About Me

I grew up in New York in what would now be called a liberal Yeshivish family. I went to a Yeshivish elementary school, a right-wing Yeshivish high-school, and spent several years in Beis Medrash.
I currently live in an Orthodox Jewish community in a mid-sized city with my wonderful wife (who is fully aware of my opinions) and our kids. I have a masters in psychology, consider myself a history buff (particularly of military history), and have an active interest in philosophy, theology, and social psychology. I’ve always been a skeptic, but usually the only one – the only one in my Orthodox Jewish high school, the only one in the post-high school yeshiva I went to, the only one in my family. Then a few years ago I stumbled across the Jewish skeptics’ blogosphere, and I was amazed to find people just like me. A little over a year later I started my own blog, http://2nd-son.blogspot.com/ where I write about my experiences, philosophy, and theology, get my thoughts in order, and generally try to convince myself that I’m an intellectual.